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Uncharted:Drake's Fortune

KnackChap

By KnackChap,
in Games

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MarketTantrik Newbie

MarketTantrik

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I played the game at yesterday's PS Experience event and I must say, its pretty fantastic !

 

A couple of funny things though ,

 

Firstly, Drake is decently quick on his feet but handles like a Tata Sumo at times. He tends to skid around when you input sharp directional changes on the controller. A minor niggle, nothing more.

 

The really funny part is the way some of the characters dodge your bullets. I could swear that a few of the AI dodging routines were directly mo-capped from a chimpanzee on prozac who had just been dosed with half a dozen Red Bulls. Hilarious to look at especially when you deliberately fire over their heads just to see their reactions :rofl2:

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KnackChap Grand Master

KnackChap

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My Uncharted Review

___________________________________________

 

Since the launch of the Playstation 3 Sony’s internal development studios have been constantly churning out some of the best titles for the system. Naughty Dog(ND) arguably Sony’s best and most consistent internal development team gears up for their first outing on the ps3 with a game called Uncharted: drake’s fortune(UDF).

UDF is a big step-up for ND, they ditch their traditional style of cartoony games for something more realistic while still maintaining the classic ND touch.

Lets get to the big question, Does ND deliver? Is this another style over substance game? the good news is that ND delivers big time, not only is this easily the PS3’s best title till date, but it also is one of the most cinematic and best single player games of this console generation.

 

STORY:

In UDF you play as Nathan Drake (nate) who believes he’s a descendant of the British marauder Francis drake. The story starts in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where nate recovers the lost coffin of Sir Francis, instead of finding the decomposing corpse of his ancestor nate finds a diary. A diary which nate believes will lead him to the city of gold el dorado .nate is accompanied by a TV reporter Elena and Sullivan(sully) friend, father figure etc

The story written and directed by the super talented Amy Henning (legacy of kain) might be cheesy at the start but as the game progresses it gets more serious and complicated, needless to say finding el dorado is not as easy as nate and his friends think, over the course of the game you’ll be meeting lots of modern day pirates, mercenaries, stereotypical Eurotrash main villain and even the man himself. the story has its fair share of twists and turns towards the end but more importantly the game doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, the story is complete.

ND have inserted a fair bit of humor into the story which is presented as fully motion captured cutscenes, the writing here is witty with some hilarious one liners especially by nate.

The biggest achievement ND have accomplished with the story is that they have made the characters immensely likeable especially drake jr,he oozes with personality, makes mistakes that everyone does and even wants to quit when the going gets tough. Despite being an everyman Nathan drake is one of the best original characters in years.

 

GAMEPLAY:

UDF gameplay is divided into 2 sections, traversal and action. Traversal mainly consists of platforming which requires you to jump from one ledge to another to find the perfect and often the only path.there are also puzzle sections in the game which are failrly easy and often provide and interesting change in pace.

The action parts,something which I was skeptical about before playing the game is the undoubtedly the best parts in the game,the game primarily consists of shooting but just like gears of war uncharted borrows the cover system from kill.switch and over the shoulder view(OTS) from splinter cell ,In fact the game borrows bits from some of the best action games of all times and integrates everything to create its own gunplay system which is not only very satisfying but also very fun.

What takes the gun battles to the next level is most definitely the incredible a.i(both friendly and enemy),the game has some of the most aggressive a.i since F.E.A.R, they are constantly moving from cover to cover,they will always flank you, hunts in groups, throw grenades if you are sitting tight in one place and in-between also make comments on what a pussy nate is. notch up the difficulty and it the game’s a.i doesn’t rely on the age old formula of take less damage, do more damage, they still go down in one shot provided you get it right which brings me to the next point, since the game has a very small ammo limit for each gun and the ammo scarcity is always there you just cant fire like hell, a fair bit of strategy goes into each battle and because the game doesn’t have any auto aim assist (which might put off a few fps fans)you’ll be doing headshots in no time.

In addition to the gun combat, you can run near any enemy a.i and start hand to hand combat,there are 3 different variants of melee pressing the square continuously for normal combos,press square,triangle,square(with proper timing) for a brutal combo where enemy drops 2X the ammo and the gunslinger combo press R1 between the square .the combo also depends on the environments so if there is a wall or a crate near the fight nate will push him towards it and start punching like crazy, also if you approach an enemy from behind nate will do a stealth kill, the combo system(combined with the layered animations) is so deep is that you will rarely find nate doing the same combo twice on a single playhtrough,

Other gameplay elements include a jeep shooting sequence and a jet ski level, while the jeep is pretty easy and almost everyone will like it, the jet ski sections might be a hit or a miss.

Also towards the end of the game the game forces you to ditch the cover system,while I wont say what it is,it works pretty well and will have you constantly running around scavenging for more ammo.the game is very challenging btw, even on normal you’ll die a lot of times.the game should last you around a good 10 hours on first go at normal

The game controls very well,its very easy to pick up and play,sixaxis motion control is used rarely and vibration is also supported if you have a Dual Shock 3 controller

 

SOUND & GRAPHICS

UDF features a rousing orchestral score that fits the game very well; the voice acting is absolutely spot on with lip synch and facial emotions to match, the sound design is also very good,the guns sound different and powerful, when a nade explodes near you, you go deaf for a few seconds etc, attention to the smallest detail is the name of the game here. the voice work by all the leading characters are very well done,in short the sound in the game is perfect

Visually let me tell you the negatives first,there is minor screen tearing towards the start of the game and that too occurs if you are playing it at 1080i which probably 90% of you wont even notice, what you will notice though is texture pop-in which occurs right at the start of a new level which is cleared up in around 3-4 seconds,there are also some collision detection issues with Nathan clipping through some objects (mainly foliage)in the first few levels of the game,some leaves look like they have been rubbed by vaseline etc leave these issues aside and UDF is the best looking game you’ll play this console generation,the texture work(all hand painted) is incredible, especially the ground textures which are some of the very best in videogames. everything from the environment to the characters are extremely detailed, wind gusts, leaves swaying, nate getting wet everytime he enters water, monkeys, etc.even when the game takes a dark turn the graphics only get better.

What brings the graphics to life though is ND’s proprietary animation system. you wont find a game that does better animations. The layered cycle woks in such a way that the character dont need to finish a certain animation cycle to start a new animation cycle. Jumps don’t need to be perfect ,if it’s a bit short nate will hang on it using one hand,everytime he takes cover it’s a different animation cycle running,if there is a dead body nate wont go through it infact he will step over it,and this happens even when you are in cover.the enemy a.i also has the same quality of animation are combined with the hit detection system they make up for exciting and exaggerated death scenes(straight from the 70’s 80’s films).UDF also features some of the best cutscenes to ever feature in a video game.

 

EXTRAS

UDF has its own version of achievements known as the reward points,you can unlock reward points by playing through the game, killing 50 enemies with certain gun,10 headshots etc.the game also has treasure which you have to find during the game there are around 60 treasures in the game, collecting the reward points and treasures help you in unlocking lots of extras in the game.

You can unlock different skins (it still will be nate in the cutscenes),making of videos, concept arts, mirror mode, flip mode etc,which add tremendous replay value to the game

You can also watch any of the cutscenes from the bonus screen.

The game has no multiplayer, or any sort of online connectivity like leader boards etc

 

Conclusion

UDF is the most fun I had with a game since the original God of War, the amazing production values are matched by equally engrossing gameplay,from the time the naughty dog logo flashes you know you are playing something special and uncharted doesn’t disappoint. the biggest compliment I can pay this game is despite finishing it I went ahead and started replaying certain chapters of this game despite having a 3 new games R&C,AC and CoD4.

 

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rana Newbie

rana

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guy's, is uncharted available right now?if not when will it hit the stores? :wOOtjumpy: and can any one of u who's goin to ps experience 2day ask the sony people to update the indian ps webite !!!!!!!! :wOOtjumpy: .it's completely out dated, no forums,no valuble info available.plz do it guys! thx in advance

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vinitwins Newbie

vinitwins

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^ KC, i'm gonna borrow your copy of uncharted next month :wOOtjumpy:

 

 

 

V

 

only if you promise me that you'll complete it in 3 days WEEKS and send it back :huh::D

 

 

done! :P

 

 

V

 

ps: in all likelihood milestone will release uncharted before i receive my ps3

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